In this paper, we have set up an empirical analysis of the economic growth in Korea between 1980 and 2015, in order to identify the potential relationships between relevant variables. We chose to study Korea because is a country notable for applying industrial policies. We compare the export-led growth versus growth-driven exports hypotheses, we also compare the contribution of FDI to economic growth hypothesis versus its opposite, the idea that a rapid economic growth attracts FDI; we also compare other opposing hypotheses. A four-variable vector autoregression (VAR) is used to study the relationships between trade, foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth using quarterly data from 1980 to 2014. We estimated the Granger causality/Block exogeneity test, and calculated the Impulse Response Functions and Variance Decomposition. The main findings are that the three tests confirm the growth-driven exports hypothesis, as well as that FDI has no effect on economic growth or exports. (The rest omitted)